1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an injection molding machine comprising a clamping unit, which is provided with a movable mold support and with rearwardly extending drive means, which engage the movable mold support on the rear, also comprising a demolding device for linearly removing moldings from the injection mold when it is open, which demolding device comprises two horizontal beams, which extend above the clamping unit and are parallel and symmetrical to a vertical longitudinal plane of symmetry of the injection molding machine and are supported on the pedestal of the machine, also comprising a motor-driven first carriage, which is movable on rails provided on the beams from a demolding station disposed over the parting line of the injection mold to a delivery station, and a third carriage, which is supported by said first carriage and comprises a gripper, which is movable into the injection mold when it is open and adapted to remove the moldings out of said mold. The machine also comprises transfer means, which are disposed between said beams and operable to transfer said moldings to a conveyor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a known injection molding machine of that kind, which is known from German Patent Publication No. 23 52 736, the demolding device is designed only for association with a specific multiple-cavity injection mold and the moldings are carried off only in a blast passage, which extends transversely to the clamping direction of the clamping unit of the injection molding machine.
EP O 218 101 A1 discloses an injection molding machine in which the demolding device is asymmetrical and is so designed that a gripper can be moved only in the vertical longitudinal plane of symmetry of the injection mold.
Other known demolding devices comprise grippers, which are linearly movable only parallel to the parting line of the injection mold, i.e., transversely to the clamping direction of the clamping unit (DE 34 32 262 A1), or only in the clamping direction of the clamping unit.
Robots are also known, which are movable in all directions in accordance with a pregiven program (company prospectus of Reis, "Reis-Linear-Robot", of 1984).